The UK has good reason to be concerned about its drinking habits, particularly so as we are passing on these habits to our children. Teenagers in the UK are more likely to get drunk than their counterparts anywhere else in the industrial world, with levels more than double that of many other countries. Among girls, the gap between the UK and other countries is even wider. Aric Sigman writes in an attractive and compelling way about the extent of this problem and the need for an action by parents, educators, public health workers and Government.

He believes that adults need to adopt a more challenging approach towards young people, abandoning the permissive non-directive attitude that has characterized so much recent thinking about education and child rearing. He has pursued this …